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February 14, 2008

Looking at Kidd's 2007 playoffs

Please do not count this as my endorsement of the Jason Kidd to Dallas deal (seriously). However, the stat man in me wants to point out that Jason Kidd's performance in last year's playoffs was amazing. You probably didn't hear a ton about it because it was in the first and second rounds of the Eastern Conference playoffs, but it deserves mentioning. Here were Kidd's numbers during those 12 games as compared to his regular season last year:

Gms

Pts

Reb

Ast

Stl

TO

FG%

3pt%

FT%

Reg. season

80

13.0

8.2

9.2

1.58

2.7

40.7%

34.3%

75.9%

Playoffs

12

14.6

10.9

10.9

1.83

3.4

43.1%

42%

52.4%

His numbers jumped an astonishing 18.3 percent in 2007 playoffs, and the numbers he put up during that 12-game span are top 5 in the NBA. But, that hasn't been the trend in his career. In fact, in the five years (all of his Nets playoff games) before the last playoffs, he averaged to do about the same level of play in the regular season and the playoffs. On average, he was only 0.8 percent better (in other words, it's negligible). A look at those regular season vs. playoff performances (by player efficiency rating).

05-06

04-05

03-04

02-03

01-02

Reg. season

21.4

21.4

20.4

22.8

21.7

Playoffs

20.9

22

18.5

22.9

24.3

If anything, it suggests he had a hot streak last playoffs against two teams with weak-to-average point guard defense (Toronto and Cleveland) and Kidd flayed the opposing team's point guards alive.

It should be pointed out that if/when the Mavericks make the playoffs, (if the trade goes through) Kidd would likely be paired with point guards like Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Deron Williams, Baron Davis and Tony Parker, as opposed to point guards like Daniel Gibson and T.J. Ford.